New Jersey saw one of the nation's biggest surges in arrests by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last year as the federal government cracked down on unauthorized immigrants during President Donald Trump's first year in office. There were 3,189 arrests in fiscal year 2017 in ICE's Newark region, which encompasses all of New Jersey, according to data released by the agency. That is a 42 percent increase compared to the previous year. New Jersey's increase was among the highest in the nation, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan demographic research group. Nationwide, ICE...

Faith S. Hochberg, a former federal judge in New Jersey, retired from the bench in 2015. Three years later, she has yet to be replaced. U.S. District Judge William Martini that same year moved to senior status--a form of semi-retirement that allows a judge to continue working at a reduced case level--creating another court vacancy that also has not been filled. Both long-term openings are now considered judicial emergencies. Last year, former Chief Judge Jerome Simandle moved to senior status as well, with at least two other judges in the federal district announcing they will soon join him in the...

Republicans in New Jersey face an unambiguous choice in next Tuesday's gubernatorial primary between a Republican moderate and a candidate with strident and untested views. Bob Franks is clearly the better qualified of the two. Mr. Franks has shown himself to be a pragmatist with the experience and temperament to carry the party's banner admirably in the November election. What was expected to be an easy victory for Mr. Franks has turned into a bitter, close race with name-calling that threatens to discourage voters from showing up. That would be a big mistake, especially for moderate Republicans. Mr. Franks, a...

Bret D. Schundler, the crusading conservative mayor of Jersey City, soundly defeated former Representative Bob Franks in the Republican primary for governor today, setting up a sharply drawn November contest with James E. McGreevey, the Democrat. Mr. Schundler, an ardent opponent of abortion and a supporter of the rights of gun owners, who promised to lower taxes, cut government spending and take down the tollbooths on the Garden State Parkway, united both fiscal and social conservatives behind his campaign. His wide margin of victory, despite a Republican establishment united behind his opponent, gave the party's conservative wing the upper hand...

The catastrophe of the mass murder in Parkland, Florida has elevated the issue of assault weapons to the forefront in the forthcoming November, 2018 elections.â€¯ There is now an overwhelming national consensus developing for the enactment of a national ban on assault weapons. The National Rifle Association (NRA) will be very much in the forefront of opposition to such a measure.â€¯ Because of their controlling influence with both President Donald Trump and the Republican majority leadership in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, the enactment of such a ban will be impossible unless the Democrats win control...

As Jersey City's police department reels from the guilty pleas of 11 people who have admitted taking corrupt payments related to off-duty jobs, a former cop says in a new lawsuit that he was ostracized and eventually fired after reporting an illegal off-duty detail 10 years ago. Juan Luis Ramos, 44, alleges in the seven-count lawsuit, filed in December in Hudson County Superior Court, that because he was "accused of being a rat," he was reprimanded and ostracized over the course a decade, targeted with at least two internal affairs probes and eventually fired in 2016. Ramos' lawyer, Lou Zayas,...

I need not dwell on the catastrophe of the Parkland, Florida mass murder last week. Such killings have become the new normal in America. In five of the six deadliest mass shootings of the past six years in the United States (Newtown, San Bernardino. Las Vegas. Sutherland Springs, and Parkland) the gunman used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle. This is a weapon that was banned for individual ownership and usage by the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban. This 10-year ban was legislatively enacted by a Democratic President, Bill Clinton and a Democratic Congress.

She travels from Middletown to Trenton nearly every day and has her own office down the hall from Gov. Phil Murphy. She has plum speaking roles at public events. And some political insiders privately refer to her as "co-governor." New Jersey's new first lady, Tammy Murphy, is so hands on in her husband's fledgling administration that she helps shape policy. And the governor makes no bones about it: His wife will be front and center over the next four years.

Republican Bob Hugin wasted little time Tuesday in attacking U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, the Democrat he's aiming to topple in this year's Senate race in New Jersey. "This campaign is going to be a contrast -- a stark contrast in candidates," Hugin, a multimillionaire former pharmaceutical executive, said minutes after formally announcing his bid for the seat currently held by Menendez, a two-term senator who recently saw federal corruption charges against him dropped. "I am offended by Senator Menendez's actions," Hugin, 63, told the crowd at the Springfield Elks Lodge. "He's violated the public trust and, at the same time,...

A gun rights group has allied with a man in a legal challenge to the state’s permitting practices after he was turned down for a carry permit because officials said he failed to show a “justifiable need.” The federal lawsuit, filed Monday by Thomas Rogers and the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, seeks to take a host of Garden State functionaries to task for their practice of rarely issuing permits to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. “The core Second Amendment right of armed self-defense is just as important to an ordinary New Jersey citizen when...

EDISON - A recent survey has found that New Jersey residents show up late to work more often than employees in any other state. The report by Mattress Clarity surveyed over 2,700 American employees about being late to work and found that the average New Jersey worker loses 7.9 minutes per week to lateness. Mattress Clarity says that the lateness costs employers $122 per employee, per year in revenue – a total of $500 million. New Jersey residents told News 12 New Jersey that there are several reasons that they were late to work. Some blamed late trains or heavy...

Before the Nunes memo was released, Democrats, the media and its intelligence sources insisted that it would undermine national security, reveal tradecraft secrets and even get agents killed. Senator Cory Booker warned that it might be treasonously "endangering fellow Americans in the intelligence community." It was, but not in the way that he meant. The memo didn’t have anything resembling classified information it. Neither did the Grassley-Graham criminal referral which was heavily redacted to screen out all the “classified information.” What did the classified information consist of?

Jenye “Viki” Knox served Union High School since 2000 as a teacher and faculty adviser for the students’ Bible study group. She began teaching handicapped students 28 years ago. An ordained minister, Knox communicated her opinion openly on social media. In 2013, Knox sued the district for violating her right to free speech and her right to the free expression of her religion. She wanted her job back with back pay and the admission that she was within her rights under the Constitution to express her views on Facebook. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey admitted that though...

PENNINGTON, N.J.—The past few years have been thick with promises of shiny new infrastructure and the revival of American greatness. Funny, then, that so little has been made of a quiet victory for U.S. infrastructure due later this year. By September 2018, one of the country’s most famous civil-engineering projects will finally complete construction, six decades after work on it began. Interstate 95, the country’s most used highway, will finally run as one continuous road between Miami and Maine by the late summer. The interstate’s infamous “gap” on the Pennsylvania and New Jersey border will be closed, turning I-95 into...

...in December, the FCC rolled back Obama-era legislation aimed at regulating Internet service providers, meaning providers don't have to treat all online sites equally. ...On Monday, Montana Governor Steve Bullock went a step further and became the first state official to sign an executive order imposing net neutrality in Montana.... ...Governor Bullock is here with me now to talk more... ...tell us about your thought process in deciding to issue this executive order? And I'd particularly like to know why you think this is an important issue... BULLOCK: Well, I think it's an important issue for Montana and, indeed, our...

New Jersey on Monday became the latest state to implement its own net neutrality rules following the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of the Obama-era consumer protections. Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed an executive order prohibiting all internet service providers that do business with the state from blocking, throttling or favoring web content. “We may not agree with everything we see online, but that does not give us a justifiable reason to block the free, uninterrupted, and indiscriminate flow of information,” Murphy said in a statement. “And, it certainly doesn’t give certain companies or individuals a right to pay their way...

A West Virginia bill that would end taxpayer funding for abortions in the state is slated for a public hearing Monday in the state House. West Virginia is one of 17 states that funds elective abortions for low-income women through Medicaid. State House Bill 4012 would end taxpayer funding for abortions except when medically necessary to save the mother’s life, the AP reports. Since 1977, state taxpayers have been forced to pay millions of dollars for tens of thousands unborn babies’ abortion deaths, according to West Virginians for Life. “The federal government limits tax funding of abortions to cases of...

BAYONNE -- Ten years after first renting out the basement of the St. Henry's Church school for prayer services, the Bayonne Muslim community will finally get have their own place of worship on the east side of town. It's been a long road for the Bayonne Muslims, whose controversial application to build a community center and mosque was denied last year amid ardent resistance from a segment of the town's population. But after filing a federal lawsuit against the city, which the group settled Wednesday for $400,000, the application now only needs to be publicly approved at a hearing in...

the city has reached a $400,000 settlement with a local Muslim group that will allow the organization to build its community center in its original location on the east side of the city. By settling with the nonprofit Bayonne Muslims, who filed a federal lawsuit against the city in May, Bayonne will avoid what could have been a long and costly legal battle. As a result, the Bayonne Muslims will have the green light to convert a vacant industrial property they purchased on East 24th Street two and a half years ago. "We are so grateful for the support of...